Sunday, October 31, 2010

most of you are probably aware that while candy is tasty and sweet, it is not the best of ideas for children (or any of us, for that matter) to consume large quantities of it all at once. so in thinking about our family traditions around halloween, we decided it would be fun to merge "brownie" folklore from bryan's youth with an idea from our friend kathryn known as "the halloween witch."

its basic concept is that the children select a given number of their favorite confections from trick or treating (summer got seven this year; afton chose three) and then put the rest out on the doorstep for the (good) halloween witch, who comes in the night to exchange their candy for an awesome, inedible surprise.

really, this turned out to be a thinly veiled way for mom and dad to steal all the kiddies' candies (in the future, when there is more candy to be had, we have fully honorable intentions of dropping it off at a local dentist's office to send to the troops overseas). but hey, summer and afton thought it was great fun and still got 10 pieces of yummy candy between them -- PLUS a new set of pink mega blocks.

Monday, October 25, 2010

so in case you haven't noticed, halloween is my favorite holiday. it used to be valentine's day, but recently, halloween has staged a coup and taken over the coveted number one spot.

anyway, to kick off this week's festivities, we hosted a pumpkin faces playdate where the kiddos did some cookie "decorating." of course, her mother wasn't watching her very closely, so summer consumed by far the largest amount of sugar. she placed about six m&ms in her mouth for every one on the cookie. hooray for halloween!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

this is a fun genetics game for me to play. and while it's difficult to create exact matches in photos (esp. with regards to facial expressions), i like to give it a whirl every once in awhile to get a fair look-alike comparison of the girls.

i'm gonna say that without the smile (and besides the cheeks), the most noticeable discrepancy here is their hair type: stick straight on afton and a slight curl in summer's.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

okay, peeps, it's that time of the year again: time for everyone to break out their annual pumpkin patch photos. this year, we ended our three year engagement with craven farms and went to jubilee in carnation -- we loved it!

of course, being fall in the pacific northwest, it started to rain (see photo three) as we were searching out our perfect pumpkin, so we ended up not taking as many pics as we usually do (i know, the horror!)

however, being true washingtonians now (with our daughters born and bred), we stayed out in the patch, found our pumpkin, and enjoyed our morning despite the rain.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

1) she recently learned that bryan goes to work to make money. now, when he comes home, she asks for "the monies," and bryan gives her a dollar. it starts young, daddies dearest. it starts young.

2) she has very specific taste in music. her favorite songs must meet the following criteria: have a female vocalist, be fast and loud, and allow her to express her inner bootyliciousness. if a song is lacking in any of these areas, she will ask you to turn it off and put on single ladies.